Page:The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter (1922), vol. 2.djvu/172

 mouth. Smiling and blushing, I besought her for something worse still; she voluptuously promised it at once. But to me, she was chaste. But, Æschylus, she will not be so to you; take the boon if you want it, but she will attach a condition.” In all that could pertain to accomplished skill in their profession, the “limit was the ceiling,” they were there to serve, and serve they did, as long as the recipient of their ministrations was willing to pay or as long as his chits were good. With them, secrecy was the watchword. Tiberius, probably more sinned against than sinning (he has had an able defender in Beasley) is charged, by Suetonius, with the invention of an amplification and refinement of this vice. The performers were called “spinthriæ,” a word which signified “bracelet.” These copulators could be of both sexes though the true usage of the word allowed but one, and that the male. They formed a chain, each link of which was an individual in sexual contact with one or two other links: in this diversion, the preference seems to have been in favor of odd numbers (Martial, xii, 44, 5) where the chain consisted of five links, and Ausonius, Epigram 119, where it consisted of three.

  Gladiator obscene:—

The arena of his activities is, however, that of Venus and not Mars, Petronius is fond of figurative lan- Rh